This is MJ. I'm an author, I'm an artist, I'm an analyzer. You can find all my work at MJMunoz.com
This time I'm talking about chapter 12 of Peter Pan as I discuss the book, chapter by chapter.
So in this one the children are carried off and Hook is quite underhanded.
I talked about it in my short how he didn't follow any of the rules of engagement had he, the Indians would have been able to defeat him.
But they weren't because he didn't. And even at the end of the battle he did something really clever and interesting,
which is he had Mr. Smee beat the Tom-Tom and when he did that the lost boys were confident that the Indians had had a victory
because they only beat the Tom-Tom when they've won a battle.
So the boys were all sure that the pirates had been defeated by their new frenzy Indians and the boys ended up leaving themselves completely open to attack.
Now not much happens in this chapter really so I don't really have much to say.
I'm sure some people would complain about the racist and dated language that Barry uses to talk about the Indians here.
And that's not the kind of conversation I'm interested in having at all.
I want to take this for what it was and value it under the understanding of the times.
And I also want to say that I do think Barry accords great honor and respect to the Indians and says that they're superior in a lot of ways.
He calls them uncivilized and says that things that they do and know how to do are admired by civilized men,
so implying that they're savages and he calls them savages, but I don't think that's a negative. I don't think that's an insult.
Especially not to the mind of a child.
And we have to remember that this book is written two children, four children, and while you may not like that he's inculcating that idea of Indians as savages or Native Americans as savages,
he means it as a compliment, and a compliment alone. These children admire pirates and rogues and fighting and killing bears and things like that.
And to them these men who are so powerful and so close to nature and so capable are everything that they want to be, but everything that they can't be, everything that they're not allowed to be.
It's almost a transgressive kind of thing if you think about it, and I think there's a lot to be said about that. I think there's a lot that can be thought about, but not in a scolding, attacking school marmots way.
I think there's something that we can do to look at that and understand the virtue and the value in being that kind of dangerous individual.
I don't know why but recently C.S. Lewis's line said through Mr. Beaver about Aslan keeps coming to mind, you know, is he, I was like, oh, Lucy says I hope he's a tame line. No, of course he's not tame.
He's dangerous. He's very dangerous, but he is good. And that's the important part. That's the distinction that these Indian savages that they may be, they're good.
Not only are they good as the boys allies but the boys saw them as good before them. They appreciated them for who they were, and didn't need to have them conform to their unsavage nature.
They didn't need them to be civilized in order to respect them and see them as equals and possibly even superiors in some ways.
And I think that's the kind of language that Barry has here. And I think when you reduce everything to a political stance, when you reduce everything to a by saying this, am I putting myself on the wrong side of history, by holding this opinion, am I thinking the wrong thing, then you limit yourself and you victimize yourself and others by casting everybody in this bizarre game of ideology and words.
And
patterns of thinking and manners of thinking about things as opposed to the world of action, where you get to see people who espouse certain things will turn around and harm the very people that they say they want to help, and people who don't hold to those soft worded ideals
will be crude and be rude and yet give people honor and dignity and respect and become allies with people like that who others would suspect they would hate and want to harm, which isn't true I think in most cases.
So, I know it's a very interesting chapter. I know I talked real political there, and I didn't talk much about the chapter but there's not much to talk about the chapter that isn't political.
The turns of phrase were lovely, it was beautiful prose, and it was interesting how deadly and dastardly Hook is described, and beyond that there's not much else to say the boys are innocent.
And there's a certain innocence and charm and honor to the tribe as well that is described and then that's contrasted with Hook's real savagery and his real lack of decorum and his real lack of honor and his true villainy.
And I think that in itself is interesting to think about.
So anyway, like share subscribe, comment on this get other people engaged so we can keep talking about this book and other books as well, classic and modern children's literature, mostly middle grade books, as I'm going through all these books, reading them thinking about them talking
about them, and trying to elevate the literary conversation. So, anyway, I'm going to be working on these things and working on my own stories as well.
And I will let you know as soon as they're ready to come out and where you can check them out you can find everything at MJMunios.com and subscribe over there as well so you can keep up with all my latest.
Until next time folks take care, be well and keep reading.
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